Peek at My Week 2/23/14: Giveaways and a Sale!

It's time for a new week... and LOTS of fun!

I can hardly believe that March is just around the corner. Where did February go? Ha, around here it went the way of "snow" days, six to be exact! Combine that with a conference comp. day and Presidents' Day and that leaves not a whole lot of instructional time. This week is the first week since way back in December that we will have a five day week. Five whole days!!!! As a result, this will be a week of finishing up/catching up.

My eighth graders will be finishing up a non-fiction text structures unit. Today is a SCATTER using task cards. Tomorrow is time to work on a cumulative writing project. Wednesday is a test on the structures. Thursday is time to work on their writing project while Friday brings a SCOOT style sharing of their projects.

Fifth grade will finish up with Ms. Murphy's author's point-of-view lesson. They will be SCOOT-ing today and taking a test tomorrow. We will be moving them into Literature Circles on Wednesday which should take the rest of our week.

My sixers will be focusing on finishing up their snowflake craftivity (photos to come) while moving into a re-learning of adverbs. Why is it that this part of speech is so very difficult for kiddos to assimilate?  Does anyone have some tricks or tips for teaching these little guys?

As for blogging this week? It's all about giveaways and sales.

If you haven't checked out Deb's giveaway over at Crafting Connections, please go right now! She has a FANTASTIC set of 15 prizes that she is giving away in celebration of reaching some blogging milestones.

I'm planning a Milestone Mania giveaway, set to go live the first week in March. If you'd like to participate by donating a product, please visit this link for more information. There are already nearly fifteen bloggers helping me provide an AWESOME prize package for you. I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it if you would join in the mania as well!

Sale? I did say sale! TpT is hosting their first ever Thursday-Friday sale at the end of this week in honor of reaching a special milestone. Customers can earn up to 28% off of their purchases. It's time to go window shopping and create your wishlists, bloggy friends! Sellers are uploading loads of new items just for you! Get ready, get set, SHOP! Just be sure to use the special promo code TPT3 when you check out!

A Special thank you goes out to Theresa and Robyn for organizing this great linky!

An InLinkz Link-up

It's That Time Again...

Time to join Jennifer from Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for a ...

It's another four day week. Tuesday is really Monday, so I guess I have two Mondays this week. LOL!

Ms. Murphy, my student teacher is doing an important lesson this week, one for her big student teaching project. We have to video bits and pieces of it so she can submit a video along with detailed lesson plans, photos, and student work. This is not only a university requirement but also a state of Ohio requirement for all prospective teaching candidates. PHEW! Student teachers have MUCH more to do today than I did 30+ years ago!

Ms. Murphy showing-off one of Deb Hanson's craftivity lessons that she lead.

Because Ms. Murphy is concentrating on her special lesson, I actually get a chance to teach, really teach, this week. My eighth graders and I will be finishing up a lesson about nonfiction text structures. We had started this a while back but due to calamity day interruptions and lessons taught by Ms. Murphy, we will be finishing it this week by completing a craftivity from Deb Hanson and playing  Scatter with task cards, creating a magazine, and completing an assessment all from Teaching with a Mountain View.

Here you see the craftivity in progress. These are almost finished!

This week is also the Science Fair. My sixth graders were required to participate. I'm anxious to see what projects they have completed. I know the topics but not the results. We lost a lot of in school time for development due to all the calamity days so I am a bit worried that they weren't really prepared well. I've been fielding text messages and emails from them this weekend so I know many of them are working on their projects. I have to wait until Wednesday to see them!

Speaking of sixth graders... I think we're going to be able to complete our snowflake craftivity combined writing combined video this week... more about this as it unravels.

On Thursday my family is coming for dinner. We haven't had a family meal in like FOREVER... again due to all the bad weather. It's hard to plan anything. I'm going to try a new recipe: Dr. Pepper Crockpot Chicken. My friend Diane makes it all the time; her family RAVES about it, so I'm giving it a go.

I'm still debating about what to serve with it... any suggestions?

I'm looking forward to my week. This is the last of the four day or shorter weeks, unless... well, you know... if the white, fluffy stuff falls again... shh!

Be sure to stop by Jennifer's blog to peek at more bloggers' weeks!

Happy Teaching,
Angela
The Teacher's Desk 6

Peek at My Week: Share the Love

Time to join Jennifer from Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for...

When I started planning the week ahead I was SHOCKED! This coming Friday is Valentine's Day. How in the world did that happen? Just last week it was the middle of January. That's what happens when you miss ELEVEN days due to inclement weather. Holidays sneak up on you. Other things sneak up on you also... things like observations.

I have been trying to set a day and time for my annual observation. Each time one is set, we have a snow/cold day! I'm ready to give up! My student teacher is running into the same problem. She has her first university observation this coming Monday. Dare I mention the forecast is for another day with subzero temps and wind chills? sigh!

We hopefully will be able to finish a few items that have been dragging on forever... My Side of the Mountain has been hanging over my sixth graders' heads since December. We are doing a quick read to just finish it! This novel is another casualty of bad weather. We had started reading this book via Literature Circles, but we will end it reading it independently and completing a triorama of their favorite part and a discussion of the theme. Hopefully, I'll have some photos later in the week of this project.

We're also doing some fun word work, grammar fundamentals with snowflakes. We're in the middle of creating a three dimensional snowflake on which my sixers are reviewing parts of speech, figurative language, and sentence skills. These will serve as a springboard for writing a poem about snowflakes that they will publish via Animoto... more about this project as (if, when) it develops.

Ms. Murphy will finish up the genre craftivity that she began last week with the fifth graders and start a new lesson with text evidence and nonfiction text structures with the eighth graders. Later in the week she'll be doing a Valentine/plot craftivity with the sixth grade while I complete a nonfiction text structure lesson with the eighth graders. All-in-all a VERY busy week! Let's keep our fingers crossed that Mother Nature cooperates with our plans.

Meanwhile, let's not forget to celebrate Valentine's Day! Each day this week I'll be doing some fun Valentine themed Language Arts review activities with my classes. I had super fun creating all of these and can't wait to share them with my kiddos. They are all available for purchase in my TpT Store; however, I'd really LOVE to share ONE with you.

Here's what to do..
1. Click on the activity of your choice. You'll be taken to its page in my TpT Store.
2. Pin the product on Pinterest or mention it in a blog post.
3. Return to this post and leave a comment below in which you place the URL of the pin or post. If you are a no-reply blogger, please also include your email address.
4. Do all this by the evening of Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2014, and I'll send you the product you chose as a Valentine's gift.

Happy Valentine's Day,
Happy Teaching,
Angela
The Teacher's Desk 6

Sigh... A Peek at My Week!

I seriously thought about not joining one of my favorite linkies this week. Some weeks I really have nothing to share, just ho hum routine things. However, this week I actually had several things I was really looking forward to and had planned to blog about... a Monday Made It project (Snow Globe writing activity by my fifth graders... uber cute!), a Tried It Tuesday activity (Genre Craftivity by Deb Hanson, postponed yet again), and Catholic Schools Week fun! Alas... all not to occur due to...

We have missed seven days of school this year, six of them since Christmas break all because of the snow and COLD! And it looks like we might be missing another, maybe two, this week. SIGH! By state law we are allotted five weather/calamity days per school year. Our principal informed us last Friday that we will have to decide how to make up the overage days... great! There goes spring break.

Today, our governor announced that he is attempting to extend the number of school days missed due to the weather this year. Hopefully, he will succeed! In 33 years of teaching I have never missed this many "snow" days. Six was the most back in 1994 when we had an entire week of sub-zero air temps and incredibly low wind chill temps. There are years when we use only one weather day; those extra days that we don't use should be banked for years like this! You can see we still have a few more days of the nasties coming our way!

Anyway, here is what my week should've looked  like...

Yesterday was the start of Catholic Schools Week, one of the most fun weeks of the year. We had a pancake breakfast planned for the entire community... CANCELED due to the cold and snow. Today we had Mass planned... CANCELED due to the cold and snow. Tuesday was to have been a fun excursion to Sky Zone, an indoor trampoline place... POSTPONED until next week due to the probability of another snow day. We more than likely will also be off of school on Wednesday. That leaves two days to celebrate the gift of Catholic education. I'm sure we'll try to get some fun in there somehow:)

On the bright side, I've had plenty of time to work on school things. I'm caught up on grading papers and lesson planning which means I can now spend time blogging and creating TpT products. I have been receiving some wonderfully positive feedback on my ZAP! games. This encouraged me to try something a bit different... a make your own editable ZAP! game.

In this packet is everything that you will need to make your own skill review game: labels, card templates, answer key template, storage tips, and instructions for assembly and play all done in a cute monster theme. All you need to add are the items that you want your students to review. The best part is that you can use the materials over and over, making new games! I'm working on more of these make your own packets in different themes. I think one of them should definitely be SNOW related, don't you?

Speaking of SNOW and ZAP!... I'm still stuck home due to the weather so it's not too late to leave me a WARM comment HERE at this blog post. If you do, I'll send you my Snow Day ZAP! Synonyms for "COLD" game.

I really am looking forward to Thursday and Friday when the temps rise and we will return to school. I'm anxious to finish all the fun projects my classes have in process and start some new ones. I'm actually tired of being home.

I'll leave you with something a former student sent to me via Facebook. I got such a tickle out of it that I hope you do as well!

Happy Teaching (I wish I were),
Angela
The Teacher's Desk 6

A Peek at My Week and a Lit. Circle FREEBIE

Well, where did last week go? Thanks to the polar vortex I was without internet for several days and stuck home for three days. I was so looking forward to returning to school and celebrating my favorite part of the Christmas season with my kiddos (see this post). No internet + no school = unhappy teacher. All's well, however, now. I'm linking up with my bloggy friend, Jennifer from Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for her weekly A Peek at My Week party.

This coming week is a full week of learning and fun. The fun part is really for me! You see, I have a student teacher working with me for the next 15 weeks who just happens to be one of our school graduates and a former student of mine. Her university suggested she just observe and do small jobs in the classroom like grade papers, work one-on-one with a student, etc. for the first four weeks. Bah humbug! I'll have several photos next week of Ms. Murphy in action! She's going to do a Language Arts lesson with my eighth graders at the end of the week. Here she is timing the Wise Men SCOOT activity for my eighth graders. She is grading their papers this weekend also, bless her heart!

Meanwhile I'll be finishing up this Citing Text Evidence lesson from Erin at I'm Lovin' Lit with my eighth graders on Monday and Tuesday. It comes from her Interactive Writing Notebook product. However, this Citing Text Evidence lesson is offered as a FREEBIE. She explains it well on her blog at this post.

My sixth graders will be finishing up My Side of the Mountain... hopefully! We have had so many interruptions what with Christmas programs and parties and snow/cold days (four already) that we got far behind. This was their first full-fledged novel done completely with Literature Circles so it was a tad slow going. I'm going to speed them through the last one-third of the book  lickety split so Miss Murphy can take over afresh in two weeks.

My fifth graders will just be introduced to Literature Circles this week. On Monday, I'll teach them the six jobs as outlined by Harvey Daniels in his book, Literature Circles: Voice and Choice in the Student Centered Classroom, a book I've used since 1998. We'll also watch a brief video of a small Literature Circle in action.

On Tuesday, the fifth graders will create this interactive notebook foldable to help them remember the six jobs they will be completing as they work in Literature Circle groups. If you would like a copy just click HERE or on the graphic below.

We'll practice these jobs on Wednesday through Friday with some winter/snow related picture books, and be all set to start our first novel the following week. That's my school week in a nutshell. On the homefront... I have been on cat patrol for six weeks! You might recall that I brought a sweet, young feline (Lulie) into my home six weeks ago. 

 My incorrigible old queen, Daisy did NOT like her at all!!!!

After numerous chases, hissing and growling matches, calming treats and spray, and brandishings of the squirt bottle, progress is being made... I think... I hope! Where once the two could not bear to be in the same room, we now have the old queen coaxing the young feline to play, I think. Lulie does not trust Daisy and will not respond to the coaxing. Lulie knows that Daisy might just be coaxing her to come closer for a good thrashing! LOL! 

Anyway... I will still be on cat patrol this week as well! Soon, I hope, this job will fade away. I hope everyone has a great week! Be sure to stop by Jennifer's blog to read more A Peek at My Week blog posts. Happy Teaching, Angela The Teacher's Desk 6

Peek at My Week: Veteran's Day Activities and a Freebie

I almost didn't link up for a Peek at My Week with Jennifer at Mrs. Laffin's Laughings. I was out two days last week so much of what I'm doing this week is catch-up from last: finishing mentor sentences, completing short stories, continuing working through the writing process, and finalizing spelling work. However, I enjoy this linky A LOT, and I am doing some brand new things, soooo... here I am!

I've never really included a study of Veteran's Day during the month of November. We have always had some sort of special prayer for the day and we have had relatives of students who are veterans come to school for special recognition. But to teach its origin and history? Never, until this year. And it's thanks to you, my bloggy friends.

When I saw how many teachers were doing special lessons to teach students about our veterans and Veteran's Day I was inspired to do something as well. Starting on Wednesday of this week, all three of my classes will begin with a simple TELL ME about Veteran's Day on a post-it note. These will be displayed on the wall as we talk a bit about their perceptions. 

They will then be charged with researching to GIVE ME three facts about the holiday. On Thursday, we will share these, once again on post-its. And finally they will SHOW ME what they have learned and assimilated by designing stamps in honor of Veteran's Day.

In the meantime, my fifth and sixth graders will also polish up some Language Arts skills by doing  two holiday activities that I created this weekend. One is a  Veteran's Day Scoot that focuses on end punctuation and types of sentences, and the other is a Veteran's Day Zap game that focuses on complete sentences and sentence fragments. Both are available in my TpT Store.

Next Monday, Veteran's Day, my students will study the poem "In Flanders Field", a tribute to the soldiers who fought during World War I.They will end our study of this wonderful national holiday by receiving a special brag tag that I created for them. You're welcome to download a set of these brag tags for your students if you'd like. Click HERE or on the graphic for your copy.

I'm looking forward to celebrating Veterans' Day, remembering all those men and women who have given us the precious gift of freedom!

Happy Teaching,

Angela

The Teacher's Desk 6

Peek at My Week and Pin It to Win It Winner

I'm linking up with Jennifer at Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for a Peek at My Week.

This week starts the beginning of the second quarter. That means I have grades to finalize and report card comments to file by Tuesday evening. Actually, I should have all that done by Monday afternoon. For once I'm a little ahead of schedule.

This week also starts writing workshop for grades 5 and 6. During the first quarter I focus primarily on reading strategies and mentor sentences (ways to communicate, elaborate, and engage through our writing), using a bit of a more traditional approach. Now I'll institute my version of the writing process along with peer conferencing.

I'll also start introducing Literature Circles in grs. 5 and 6, and the eighth graders will enter their text book for the first time (we had used two novels for the first quarter) with the short story "The Tell Tale Heart" by Edgar Allen Poe. This is a BIG week for learning..... and for fun.

It's Halloween, so that means the annual costume parade and party... followed by All Saints' Day Mass the next day. That means my sixers will have songs to learn since they help me lead the music at our worship services. LOTS to do but I love it that way!

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And now... time for the Pin It to Win It Winner!

There were six entrants in my Birthday Pin It Giveaway. Using a random number generator, entrant No. 1 was the winner of my Bundle of Six Halloween Scoot Activities! 

Congratulations to Cherie! I've emailed the bundle to her just in time for Halloween. 

Have a great week,

Happy Teaching,

Angela

The Teacher's Desk 6

A Peek at My Week and a FREEBIE

Oh my goodness! It is Sunday again. I have good intentions to blog during the week, but I can't seem to squeeze in the time. I figured I could find time this weekend since I had worked hard to get all my lesson plans and materials ready by Thursday this past week, but... sigh! Then this weekend: I had planned on blogging for Snapshot Saturday but left my camera at home. I had planned to blog for Mentor Texts but left the book at school. Now it's Sunday and time for...

Monday is my boys first home football game. My sixers are permitted to play on the junior high football team. There are only three of them that play with the bigger boys, and they have been begging me to come to a game to see them. All of the games have been out of town so far, just too far to travel after a long day at school. I can't wait to see them play! I hear they are better than many of the 7th and 8th graders. Here they are at pep assembly we had this past week. Can you pick them out?

The rest of the school week should run smoothly. There are no meetings or after school activities. All I have to complete is progress reports and view a formative assessment module online in preparation for an inservice next Monday. Unfortunately, I have several progress reports in eighth grade that I must send, not due to struggling with understanding concepts, but rather letting extra-curricular activities interfere with school work... several students are just not completing work. And that formative assessment module... two hours at my computer just watching a video... sigh!

I won't even have too many papers or assignments to grade this week other than some Padlet boards for gr. 8 English and Spelling papers for grs. 5/6. We've been studying words with Greek/Latin roots each week for five weeks. This week is a review week, returning to all the roots we've covered so far: AQUA, PHOTO, PHON, GRAPH, and MOT/MOB. HERE is an assignment sheet that I will give to my students on Monday. They will work on the assignments, one per day, turning them in as we go along. The wordsearch is a little fun and challenging, requiring them to not only search for the word but identify its root's meaning. This group of kiddos has never done one like this. I can't wait to share it with them. Then on Thursday we'll play a fun review game so they are ready for a test on Friday.

I'm hoping the week passes quickly as I've some special plans for the weekend. A dear friend of mine whom I don't see nearly as often as I'd like has invited a group of us women to her home for dinner. Can't wait!!!! AND I can't wait for next Sunday! I'm traveling out of town to visit once again with my former pastor/special friend who will be installed as pastor at his new parish.

I've got a terrific week ahead of me. How 'bout you?

Happy Teaching,
Angela
The Teacher's Desk 6